Chris Kluwe Files A Lawsuit Against The Minnesota Vikings

Report: Chris Kluwe's Lawsuit Against The Minnesota Vikings Is On Hold

Updated on July 23, 2014 at 2:30 p.m. EDT: The Associated Press is reporting that Chris Kluwe has decide not to file a lawsuit against the Minnesota Vikings today as was originally planned. Kluwe's attorney, Clayton Halunen, and the Vikings' Joe Anthony have both urged their clients to continue settlement discussions.

“I wouldn’t have taken him,’’ former Colts coach Tony Dungy recently told the Tampa Tribune. “Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it.”

Tony Dungy was the first African-American coach in history to win the Super Bowl. He has penned books to help educate children about bullying. He runs a charity that aims to empower whole communities. But he doesn’t have the time or patience for gay rights?

“It’s not going to be totally smooth … things will happen.’’

One of the greatest football minds of his generation — a pillar of his sport — and he doesn’t have the courage to take a stand against homophobia?

Statements like Dungy’s are exactly why Chris Kluwe’s fight and pending lawsuit against the Minnesota Vikings are so important.

“There is a culture within the NFL that just doesn’t want to talk about this issue and doesn’t want to accept that this is an issue,” the former Vikings punter acknowledged over the phone.

“We have gay players in the NFL, we know that we have gay players in the NFL and yet the NFL is willing to stand by and not support them besides some fluff PR pieces where they’re like, ‘Hooray for Michael Sam’ and then they don’t do anything to change the culture that keeps guys like Michael Sam from coming out in the first place.”

The 32-year-old Kluwe alleges that he was released from the Vikings because of his (very vocal) activism in support of same-sex marriage and work in the LGBTQ communities. He also made claims — now supported — that special teams coordinator Mike Priefer routinely made homophobic remarks, including the now infamous statement:

“We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.”

Faced with disciplining Priefer then or releasing Kluwe, the Vikings management took the easy way out. Kluwe took his allegations public, which forced the team into initiating an independent investigation. The team told Kluwe that the report would be made fully available.

Now, almost a year later, Kluwe is taking the team to court. Why is he doing this?

Remember, this is what the Vikings promised for six months. Why did they suddenly change their mind when they got the report? What's in it?

The team has backtracked and refused to release the full report and although Mike Priefer has been suspended for three games and asked to donate $100,000 to LGBTQ charitable organizations, it was much less than what Kluwe was asking for.

“The Vikings have already admitted that they cut me because of my activism; they have already admitted that [Priefer’s homophobic statements] were said by a direct supervisor to someone under his control; they’ve already admitted that one of their employees took a matter of harassment and discrimination to someone in upper management and then upper management did nothing about it.”

Except, of course, release Kluwe.

“Essentially, what I’m fighting for is the right for all of us as individual citizens to stand up for things that matter, to stand up for civil rights and not be worried that we’re going to lose our job over it. And really, everyone should be concerned about that because if you don’t fight for that then, at some point, you lose your voice — and then you can no longer fight.”

Kluwe, a happily married family man, decided to fight for the rights of a community that he saw as being denigrated by the culture around him — in both the political arena and in the locker room.

There are very few people associated with the NFL who are willing to speak out for gay rights and same-sex marriage and make a stand against homophobia in football. Michael Sam, at the risk of his career, came out as gay before this year’s NFL draft. Chris Kluwe lost his career because he made a stand.

“I’ve had guys reach out to me with messages of support, you know, saying keep your head up, hang in there. I think that this is something that obviously no current player is going to come out and say something on because they see what happened to me and they don’t want to put themselves in the same boat.”